From 2006 to 2011 the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ran a gun smuggling operation into Mexico to ostensibly dismantle Mexican drug gangs, accomplishing the precise opposite, however, in what has affectionately become known as Fast and Furious. Further back in time we have covert operations like Oliver North’s Iran Contra scandal of the mid 1980s, and America’s involvement in arming rebels in Central America to destabilize uncooperative governments. The list goes on.

Furthermore, it is alleged that the CIA, DEA and other government agencies have been involved for decades in the destruction of American communities by covertly shipping in drugs. Former DEA agent Cele Castillo has been persecuted by the U.S. government for seeking accountability of the George H.W. Bush administration for drug smuggling into the U.S. He would know as he was directly involved.

Again, the list goes on and on; however, with the recent rise of violence in Chicago involving over 3000 shooting victims in 2016 so far (January 1st to September 13th), it appears that another case of U.S. sponsored gun-smuggling and intentional destruction of inner-city communities may be at play.

In a publicly available video testimony an ex-Chicago gang member describes how crates of fully automatic firearms would regularly be found in alleyways and backstreets of urban Chicago at the early hours of the morning, giving free, illegal weapons to the gangs of Chi-Town, which is now often referred to as Chiraq because it is a war zone.

He refers to it as a diabolical plot, a plan, affecting only low-income areas, pointing out that many of the firearms being found were class-3 automatic firearms, which can only be purchased at certain retailers under intense federal scrutiny. He notes that criminals aren’t allowed to buy firearms in the first place, yet the guns are everywhere, so where are they coming from?

Chicago has some of the strictest gun restrictions in the United States with some of the highest rates of gun violence. Gang members are not buying them legally, and the police are pulling guns off the street on a daily basis, so where are they coming from?